Fort Worth-area man who molested boy up to 20 times sentenced to 20 years in prison
A Grapevine man who molested a boy last year in the bathroom of a Grapevine recreation center as many as 20 times was sentenced on Friday to 20 years in federal prison.
On several occasions, Chansellor Hill had the 11-year-old boy undress and sit on a bathroom counter while he photographed the naked boy and committed sex acts on the child, authorities said.
Hill molested the boy 10 to 20 times from March 2019 until October 2019, according to federal court records.
HIll, 26, of Grapevine repeatedly was released from jail after being arrested on alleged sex crimes in late 2019.
The Grapevine man pleaded guilty in April to a federal charge of sexual exploitation of children.
Hill had faced a maximum of 30 years in prison.
“I’m sorry for everything I did,” Hill said Friday morning after U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor asked him if he wanted to say anything before he was sentenced. “I take full responsibility.”
Hill, who entered the federal courtroom in handcuffs and leg chains, showed no emotion after the judge sentenced him.
Defense attorney William Biggs had asked the judge for the minimum of 15 years, saying Hill had been injured as a child and sexually abused when he was a boy.
“He hasn’t had meaningful treatment,” Biggs said Friday morning.
But Assistant U.S. Attorney Aisha Saleem said Hill posed a risk to the community.
“He’s a danger to a community, “ said Saleem, who is an assistant U.S. attorney in the Northern District of Texas.
Hill drew state-wide attention earlier this year when Gov. Greg Abbott said on Twitter that the Texas state legislature would consider bail reform proposals after concerns were raised over Hill’s earlier release from jail.
“My office will look into this tragedy,” Abbott said on Twitter.
Parents concerned about Hill being out of jail on bond on several occasions held a community meeting in January.
In addition to being sent to prison, Hill also must register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
In the current case, authorities said, Hill sexually assaulted a boy repeatedly over the course of several months. The boy told Grapevine police Hill, who is 6 feet 4 inches tall and 260 pounds, trapped him in a family bathroom, sexually assaulted him and took pictures on his cellphone, according to an arrest warrant obtained by WFAA-TV.
The alleged abuse stopped when Hill told a REC employee and later confessed to Grapevine police, according to the warrant.
Hill was arrested in October and later released on $50,000 bond.
Hill later told Grapevine police Detective Peter Soltero, “I knew it was wrong ... he’s 12 and I am 25. It’s pretty messed up,” according to a federal complaint.
But days later, the Grapevine man was arrested again on charges of indecent exposure near a playground at CJ Hutchings Park in Grapevine. No children were around at that time. His bail was set at $2,500 on that charge.
Hill was arrested a third time in December after a Silver Lake Elementary School student told Grapevine police that Hill showed him photograph of his genitals on a cellphone in April 2018, according to WFAA-TV.
The Grapevine man was taken into federal custody in January.
Hill still faces three state charges of sexual abuse of a child under 14, indecent exposure and the display of harmful material to a minor, according to Tarrant County criminal court records. Trials on those cases are pending.
This story was originally published August 14, 2020 at 10:48 AM.
